Project Goal

Leaving a career in business, Peter Knights led an innovative campaign to target consumers of endangered wild animal by-products — from ivory carvings to rhino horn.

Armed with a degree from the London School of Economics and dissatisfied with a career in business, Peter Knights, who was born in 1964, became an avid conservationist. His innovative campaign to target consumers of endangered wild animal by-products — from ivory carvings to rhino horn — won him a Rolex Award in 1998.

Following on from his work with the Global Survival Network and the Asian Conservation Awareness Programme, Knights is today co-founder and executive director of Wild Aid.

The programme’s ongoing message — “When the buying stops, the killing can too” — is presented by over 80 athletes and celebrities such as Jackie Chan and Bollywood stars. It reaches millions of people.

A recent survey in Beijing showed that 55 per cent of people recalled the campaign, with 82 per cent saying they had stopped eating shark fin soup as a result.

Knights is now working on a climate-change campaign in India and China.